New York City is taking to the skies to try to enhance its early-warning system for high-impact weather events.
Officials with the city’s emergency management department are now using high-tech drones to send warnings to residents that threatening weather could be on the horizon.
These drones will be equipped with loudspeakers, in addition to the buzzing noise they make when they fly in the air. The officials plan to fly these drones over people’s homes to warn anyone who lives in a ground-floor of basement-level apartment that heavy rains are coming that could cause major flooding.
The emergency management agency of New York City released footage on Tuesday that shows a voice from the sky saying:
“Be prepared to leave your location. If flooding occurs, do not hesitate.”
New York City’s plan involves giving five different teams multiple drones that they will deploy to specific neighborhoods throughout the city that are prone to flooding. The messages will also be broadcast in several languages, according to the emergency management commissioner for the city, Zach Iscol.
The flights were expected to continue until the weather made it too difficult to fly them, officials said.
Flash floods are a major concern for New York City, where many residents live in either first-floor apartments or in apartments that are actually located in basements of buildings. In 2021 alone, 11 people died by drowning after flash floods hit the city hard when Hurricane Ida came to the region.
The city already has extensive early-warning measures in place, including alerts that are sent via text and on social media channels. There’s another system the city uses that reaches in excess of 2,000 community-based organizations that are in the city and that serve specific groups of people, including senior citizens and those who have disabilities.
Mayor Eric Adams held a press briefing Tuesday, during which he said:
“You know, we live in a bubble, and we have to meet people where they are in notifications so they can be prepared.”
Adams has said in the past that he’s a “tech geek,” and his administration has used drone technology for other means, including monitoring large gatherings throughout the city and monitoring for sharks on the coastline.
The police department during his tenure in office has at times deployed a robotic dog for dangerous scenes, including in 2023 when a parking garage in Manhattan collapsed.
The department even for a short period of time tested using a robot to patrol the subway station at Times Square.
Governments throughout the country are trying to harness the power of emerging technologies to keep their residents safe, and this is another example of how New York City is trying to do just that.
It’s of a particular concern recently, as the Atlantic is just entering hurricane season. In fact, Hurricane Debby — which as of Wednesday afternoon was downgraded to a tropical storm — could bring heavy rains to the New York City region by this weekend.
